Philadelphia Flyers coach Peter Laviolette has decided to stay with Michael Leighton in goal tonight in game two of the Stanley Cup Finals in Chicago.
“In the end we wanted to get Michael back in there”, Laviolette told Comcast Sportsnet.¬† “He’s bounced back from these situations in a good way.¬† Our team has bounced back from these situations”.
Throughout the season, Leighton has played well in games after contests in which he was pulled.¬† CSN’s Jim Jackson said he thought Leighton was 3-1-1 in those games after being pulled which is pretty good.
Most of the Flyers who talked yesterday made it a point to emphasize how the play of the rest of the team needs to improve in order to give Leighton a chance to do his job.
“Passes from behind the net to a guy right in front, I don’t think Marty Brodeur in net is going to stop them,” said Flyers forward Scott Hartnell.
Defenseman Matt Carle didn’t think any of the scores were the fault of the goallie.¬† “I don’t think any of those goals were particularly his fault,” Carle said. “It seemed like a basketball game. Whoever has the last shot is going to win. It was kind of a sloppy game. They have the tools to play that kind of game. It doesn’t fit our style.”
I was impressed with the confidence of Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger, who is already a Stanley Cup Finals champion.  I think he stabilizes this team and gives the other guys confidence that they can make the needed adjustments to get back on the winning side of things tonight.
The Flyers have aslo announced that Dan Carcillo will play tonight.
Pronger played over 32 minutes and was +2. You can’t really expect much more from him. We need some other guys to step up and for Coburn to not play like he has swine flu.
Obviously, this is the biggest game of the series as of now, they cannot fall down 2 games to 0
tonight..Flyers have to pull out a win somehow,someway to have a chance…
I think Leighton rebounds and plays a very good game with the Flyers winning 3-2 on a late goal by
LW D Powe with about 5 minutes left and then hang on to get out of of Chicago with a 1-1 split which is what you need and want to have as the road team to start the series.. I think the Flyers are up to the task tonight and dominant the pace and flow of the game and squeak out the “W”..
i with you Paul. Flyers win behind solid play from Leighton. I have Briere getting the GWG though.